Jamie Leigh Jones fights to bring Halliburton rape claims to court

Nearly four years after Texan Jamie Leigh Jones was allegedly raped by co-workers while working for a Halliburton Corp. subsidiary in Iraq, she came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to fight against “hidden” contract clauses that take away employees’ right to trial.

Jones, endorsed a proposal by Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., called the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009, which would prevent pre-dispute mandatory consumer, employment and franchise arbitration agreements that take away the right to take a case to court. Supporters claim that private arbitration gives unfair advantage to large companies.

Jones, a former Conroe resident who now lives in Houston, says she was drugged and raped by numerous co-workers in Baghdad’s Camp Hope while working for subsidiary KBR, which has now split from Halliburton, in July 2005. She was 20.

Jones’ case has not yet come to trial. Halliburton attorneys said last year that Jones’ employment contract she signed before taking her job states that claims by employees have to be settled in private arbitration.

Last year, a Texas judge issued an order allowing her to present her case in court.

“Unfortunately, my case is not an isolated incident,” she said Tuesday. “With the misuse of arbitration, we have made corporate entities in this country above the law.”

Since returning to the United States, Jones has made it her mission to fight for the protection of citizens who work overseas.

In 2007, she established the Jamie Leigh Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization that gives advice to U.S. citizens and legal residents who become crime victims while working abroad for government contractors and subcontractors. She also testified before Congress about her experience in Iraq.

Jones says that if she “never gets justice,” she at least will have been “a voice for others” who have been victimized by rape and arbitration laws.

While she has fought in court and on Capitol Hill, she has tried to do what she says has been hardest — moving forward with her personal life.

“I had a lot of healing to do,” she said. “The attack changed the path of my life.”

Jones is finishing a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from American Military University and recently moved back to Houston after living in California for several years.

She also has gotten married, to naval officer Joseph Daigle. The couple wed in 2006. Seven months ago, she gave birth to their first child, Lily Poetry Daigle.

“She’s the light of my life,” Jones said. “I want to keep pressing on…so my baby never has to face anything like I did.”

Lily was named after Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who, after a call from Jones’ father, contacted the State Department while Jones was in Iraq, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to help Jones leave Iraq.

Jones’ lawyer, Todd Kelly, said the Texas woman has been able “to get on with her life in large part due to taking on this cause and helping other victims.”

“Not every woman has the courage to make such matters public,” Rep. Johnson, the legislation’s author, said of Jones. “She did — and not just for her, but for others as well.”